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Lembaga Biasiswa Kenangan Maulud (LBKM) and NUS Computing launched the Future Economy Scholarship, an effort to encourage more Malay/Muslim students to pursue further studies in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). LBKM has donated $45,000 to the scholarship, which will be given out over a course of three years. Three Computing students received the scholarship, each amounting to $5,000. Adil Azmoon, Khairul Riqzi and Ismahfaris Ismail are the first recipients of the scholarship.

NUS School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (SCALE) offers Undergraduate Certificate courses in Engineering or Computing disciplines, in partnership with the NUS School of Computing and Faculty of Engineering. These courses do not need students to commit to a degree programme from the onset, but allows for a sequence of credentials – such as certificates – that can be accumulated and used immediately in the student’s career.

With the recent Equifax breach and AXA Insurance cyber attack, Associate Professor Chang Ee Chien went on air during Capital 95.8FM News segment to discuss how hackers infiltrate into secure servers, how companies can protect themselves from hackers, and to give his expert opinion on cyber security and cyber terrorism.

Consumer research firm compared tuition fees of different majors at NUS with the annual starting salaries of students who graduated last year, adjusted for the employment rates of different graduates. Computer science, information systems and computer engineering courses took the top three spots for the university majors that reaped the most financially in the first year of graduation.

PM Lee and President Joko witnessed the signing of four memoranda of understanding (MOU) at the Istana. They include MOUs on education cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Indonesia's Ministry of Education and Culture, and Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (MORTHE). Singapore Polytechnic and National University of Singapore will assist Indonesia to develop more digital talent. NUS School of Computing will be setting up a visiting scholars programme for Indonesian university scholars to exchange new ideas and to enhance their digitals skills, and to teach these skills to their peers after the programme.

Professor Wing-Kin Sung, from NUS School of Computing and Senior Group Leader of A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore, was part of a study that demonstrates a critical role of the spindle matrix complex containing chromator (Chro) functioning as an essential nuclear factor for controlling gene expression during NSC reactivation.

Lim Guo Hong, a recent Information Systems graduate, founded a globally successful start-up that was acquired for close to $1.6 million, all before he graduated from university. The online car-rental start-up, RC9, was set up by Guo Hong in his undergraduate days and was used in more than 7,300 locations across 150 countries.

With the interest in law waning, computing is the hottest ticket in the university. NUS vice-provost Bernard Tan said NUS saw a 35 per cent increase in the number of students listing computer science courses as their first choice. The NUS Computing offered 520 places this year, an increase from 370 places last year.

Singapore has become a prime destination for many of the world’s biggest technology companies to set up their offices. Professor Sanjay Jain attributed the growing popularity of Computing among students to the job prospects available. He added that the starting salaries of Computing graduates are comparable to students from Law and Medicine. A team of NUS Computing students created an app, Track Pack, which uses NFC technology to track the location of household items. The students shared how Computing is growing in popularity, and that the prospects in Computing are becoming better than traditionally popular courses like Medicine, Business and Law. The number of undergraduate intake increased by 16%, and the school plans to increase the intake of Masters students by 30%.

In light of recent terror attacks, experts worry that terrorism groups may stage cyber-attacks in the future. Associate Professor Chang Ee-Chien noted that cyber-attacks do not only affect computer software, but can also indirectly impact other systems, such as train operations, and critical infrastructure like water and electricity. He added that if such systems are compromised, it could result in considerable damage.

From January this year, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) Singapore has begun collecting iris images from Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents as another identifier. Associate Professor Terence Sim shared that the irises of each person is unique, hard to impersonate, and have more complex imaging. He also suggested using infrared vein recognition technology applied to faces and palms to enhance security.

Three new part-time degree programmes - in business analytics, cyber security and software engineering - have been launched by NUS amid growing demand for professionals in these sectors. These Bachelor of Technology (BTech) programmes will be offered on a part-time basis from August by the School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (Scale) at NUS in partnership with NUS Computing.

NUS Computing and Standard Chartered Bank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the co-development and co-delivery of a module on digital transformation. As part of this partnership with NUS Computing, Standard Chartered will also offer internship opportunities to promising students pursuing the Information Systems and Business Analytics degree programmes. Both parties will provide speakers for seminars targeted at undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as industry participants.

NUS is opening up 140 courses to its alumni over the next three years as part of its efforts to promote lifelong learning. In the first-year pilot of the initiative from August this year to July 2018, the modules will be available at no cost to the college's 278,000 alumni. In the subsequent two years, course fees - which range from about S$3,000 to S$3,500 per module - will continue to be waived, but a student services fee of S$261.85 will be charged for each semester, NUS said. The modules are offered by eight schools and faculties, including the School of Computing.

Smart Health TeleRehab is a system that aims to make physiotherapy as painless as possible: by allowing patients to exercise at any time of the day, within the comfort of their own homes. This removes the need for a patient to commute to and from a rehabilitation centre and hopefully, boost participation rates in attendance for rehabilitative therapy, which would then prevent the chances of re-admission to hospital. Professor Atreyi Kankanhalli said the TeleRehab method also gives patients a greater sense of autonomy and control, as they can do the rehabilitation exercises on their own. She added: "With the increasing incidence of chronic diseases, shortage of healthcare professionals, and yet the availability of more intelligent technologies, healthcare is a prime sector that can benefit from Smart Nation initiatives - in addition to other key sectors such as transport, commerce, utilities, security and education."

NUS Computing and the IBM Center for Blockchain Innovation (ICBI) are collaborating to jointly develop a module on financial technology, to better equip students with essential knowledge and skill sets in this area.

In an interview with Frontline, a Channel 8 current affairs programme, Associate Professor Chan Mun Choon said that the 3G network can support higher traffic than the 2G network. He added that in order to ensure faster Internet speeds, there is a need to phase out the 2G network in favour of the 3G and 4G network. Prof. Chan said that there are two main groups of people who are still using the 2G network - the elderly, who have little interest in using the Internet and primarily use their phones to make calls; and foreign workers, who may prefer to save money by using 2G phones instead of smartphones. He also added that some equipment may also still be using the 2G network, such as wireless cash register and monitoring equipment at construction sites.